Saihara's POV:

I sipped on some black coffee, I had gotten significant progress the past few days. So far at least six schools across the country were being investigated for cases similar to Ouma, half a dozen people for each of those came forward with their testimonies and at least two arrests of faculty who cooperated with the crimes. So far one of those arrested refused to give more information on who had paid them off, the other was given a lighter sentence in return for information. Yet the information given was bare-bones despite their insistence that was all they knew. 

The alarmingly high number though...the media was having a field day with the reveals. Harukawa even told me that back at school there were some online forums dedicated to theorizing what exactly was happening. Along with how the school atmosphere had changed, people were going in pairs to school, and those were the few who still went. Parents had already begun connecting the dots between what had happened to DICE along with the now heavily publicized events from the other schools and began taking their children out of the school, she even said that the school seemed to have two dozen students at most on good days.

Even though the element of surprise was gone, I wasn't disappointed with the public learning this information. It might give survivors the courage to come out and tell their own stories, or in other cases long forgotten to finally see the light of day and revisited, even if it turned out like three others to be exactly as it was originally recorded as it still left hope for the rest that the truth could and would come out.

With one notable exception.

Ouma's school, its investigation wasn't purposefully misleading anymore or withhold by my Uncle, he had been demoted by my father and that entire department was being interrogated for involvement and for withholding the truth. Many of the officers had been arrested on accounts of corruption, and while my Uncle wasn't one of them it didn't bring me comfort. Just unease, a sort of anxiousness in waiting for the day where I would have to see my Uncle in handcuffs.

I glanced back at my phone, waiting for Harukawa to get back to me. We were starting the process of getting witness testimonies from her and Momota, but we kept having to stall due to Momota having some blood clotting near his lungs and other health problems. It was so severe that Momota was now on the brink of death, constantly under heavy medication that I knew even if we managed to ween him off it to make him more lucid for such a procedure he would likely be in agony, but wouldn't say anything for Ouma's sake. I couldn't do that to Momota, he deserved better, and whatever peace he could find left.

Apparently, it wasn't the first time though that he had such a serious medical problem, he had been having problems since I left to the point Harukawa often had to abandon everything in case that was the day...the day the stars gained a new member.

The future without him seemed bleak, even if I knew him for such a short period of time.

Still...I finished my meager breakfast as I got up and made sure I had all the necessary paperwork and the address. Legally, I shouldn't have this address, it could, by all means, throw a monkey wrench into everything I had been working towards, or jeopardize my career as a detective. But...I needed to know, I needed to know where Ouma was staying all this time. It had been over eight months since I had last seen him, and Harukawa even admitted no one had heard from him since he left to move into his grandmother's house.

So even if it broke protocol, and even if Ouma couldn't find it in himself to forgive me for how I had abandoned him, even if his silence meant there was no danger I had to see it for myself with my own two eyes. That he was at least alive, and doing ok, or as best as it got for now. Today was the day I would finally see Ouma again, even if he was angry at me...well I would deserve it for abandoning him in such a desperate moment. For just a confirmation, I would bear any punishment or rage he fired at me.

It might be childish though, but I hope he would understand why I eventually did stay away for longer than I had planned. That it hadn't all been in vain, that I was working towards helping not only him but the country at large. How at least I didn't spend that time sulking, instead, I poured every last hour into trying to find out the orchestrator for his friend's murders and the one who hired them.

And he was doing everything I could have hoped, as much as it pains me during this vulnerable time. He just would need to lie low till they were locked away for good, if he managed to stay safe for maybe just another year then we would have all the time in the world. He would have a safer world to exist in, no longer having to bear a truth so bleak and dismal that it shattered his mind with guilt and sorrow. Once that day finally came, then we would have all the time in the world to fix our friendship. 

If he still wanted to be friends.

I glanced over at the clock as I paused confused, my father and I should have left by now. He was always punctual so why...my father left his office with a tired expression casting me a sympathetic expression from my place as the kitchen, I tried to ignore it. "Are we good to go?" I asked.

"Yes...but it's not for the witness protection program" he told me. I froze, "what happened?" I asked. "Ouma's new school contacted our police station, he hasn't ever attended a class, supposedly the faculty have done frequent contact with the police before they decided to contact our station. That station is now being investigated and we have discovered Ouma and his Grandmother have been reported missing for some time, we've been given the warrant to search the home...Shuichi...I need you to prepare for the worst." he advised.

"He's alive" I immediately said, my father cast a brief look of pity, pity I didn't want, as we left the house.

Please be alive.

~-~-~

The home was trashed, on the outside, the only real sign would have been the overgrown lawn, that had displaced patches of dead grass. The lawn was also covered in a thick layer of leaves, the windows were grimy and I saw abandoned children's toys on the lawn of the house, and I wondered if the house had become a new playground to the nearby children. On the outside, you could have just seen this as an abandoned home, even the door didn't show any signs of a break-in.

When you stepped into the house was when the true horrors begun. Furniture had been thrown half hazard, and broken cups and mugs had been thrown around likely as a form of self-defense, nail marks had been dragged across the wooden floor and the house was masked in a thick odor of copper, but in the kitchen was the mildly decomposed body of Ouma's grandmother. Her eyes still had the look of horror, along with the deep stab wound to her chest as she was left there to rot, and until the forensics arrived, who knew for how long.

In the basement was a door, on the inside, there were bloody fingerprints and a broken step likely from a heavyweight being thrown against it. The door also seemed to have included three locks to it, each in a different style as if to keep something out...or worse to keep someone in. The locks however had been destroyed and left discarded on the floor, which was quickly taken for evidence and fingerprinting. 

Other than that the basement had been left untouched, yet strangely I found dried blood in the corner of the basement. I feared the worse, the wheels turning in my head, as I kept trying to uncover the truth of the events. Whoever had been in that basement, it wasn't by choice...and since Ouma's grandmother was in the kitchen...

Upstairs hadn't been touched, save for a broken wheelchair in a corner. However one keynote was strange, the walls which had been covered in old family photos. None of the photos showed Ouma's mother as an adult, and for his aunt, it seemed the photos stopped at around her early twenties. Most of the photos seemed to glorify Ouma's mother, who wore a deadpanned expression and I could tell she was wearing a heavy layer of makeup in the photos, due to her more natural complexion I began to reconsider how safe his grandmother's home had been for Ouma.

Yet the ones with her face had only been from when she was in at most middle school, any depicting what likely would have been her high school years had been ripped, the face or figure in the photos ripped off. The purpose behind such an action, when none of the other belongings save for the ones likely used as self-defense had been destroyed or altered.

"He was...he was supposed to be safe this time..." I stuttered looking around the scene, "every time I try to go and see him he's already gone..." I laughed bitterly as my father guided me away from the scene with officers hard at work collecting evidence. "You didn't know" was all my father said, "But...but I was going to see him...I...I was going to apologize...why...why does this happen every time?" I begged, anger filling my voice as I choked back tears of regret.

"Son...Shuichi, we'll do our best to find him, but understand that it's likely...it's likely Ouma is already dead" my father worded carefully as I shook my head like a defiant toddler.

"He's alive" I insisted, "Shuichi he has likely abducted by-"

"He's alive! Ok?! And I am, I will find him, and I will make sure he comes home safe and sound and that nothing like this will ever happen again! He's not dead, he just..." I paused my argument dying. "I just refuse to believe it...not till I see it with my own eyes," I told him. My father didn't respond to my fleeting hope, as the scene and investigation moved around me it felt like I was in a trance watching from the distance as I blinked back my burning eyes.

I'm sorry Ouma, I'm sorry.